Greece braves jittery markets with bond sale raising 3 billion euros

Reuters — Greece launched its much-anticipated new bond on Thursday, drawing strong investor demand for the seven-year deal despite the volatility in world markets.

In its first issue since a debt exchange last November, the country was set to raise 3 billion euros at a yield of 3.50 percent. At one stage, it received 7 billion euros of orders, a Greek government official said.

“It’s a very good result. It proves that our decision to wait a couple of days was right,” the official told Reuters.

The last seven-year bond issued by Greece was in April 2010 just before the first bailout package was announced and offered an interest rate of 6 percent.

The current issue was launched at around 3.75 per cent, although the exact size of the deal was not declared.